Gross Domestic Product Down
for Two Consecutive Quarters

A national income statistics flash
report for the October through December quarter was released today. According
to the data, Japan gross domestic product (GDP) was down for the second consecutive
quarter, and it is understood that the main reason is the stagnation of personal
consumption which accounts of a large share of the GDP.

For the government, appropriate and timely economic recovery measures should be
continued in an effort to put the economy on a solid recovery course.

For the automotive industry, it is premature to judge that the industry has bottomed
out of the recession on the mere evidence that car sales remained on an upward
trend for two consecutive months since January of this year. The feeling that
the economy is recovering from the recession is still rather faint. The sales
trend will therefore require some close watching in the months ahead.